Applications and Processing Methods of Ultrafine Quartz Powder

Ultrafine quartz powder is a high-quality neutral inorganic filler. It has strong acid resistance, stable physical and chemical properties, good light transmittance, high dielectric strength, and moisture resistance.
It also shows radiation resistance, excellent high-temperature resistance, high purity with low ion content, low expansion, and low stress. Because of these properties, it is widely used in plastics, coatings, paints, rubber, ceramics, inks, catalysts, and gas filtration materials.

In high-tech industries, purity, particle size, and particle size distribution of ultrafine quartz powder are strictly required. With current grinding technology, natural quartz minerals can be processed using ball mills, stirred mills, jet mills, vibration mills, and classifiers.

Quartz Pretreatment (Calcination + Water Quenching)

Quartz has a hardness of 7. Direct crushing, as with other minerals, leads to high energy consumption and low efficiency. Therefore, thermal crushing, known as the calcination-water quenching method, is recommended.

Quartz is first calcined at high temperatures (900-1150°C) and then cooled by water. This causes the quartz to rapidly expand and contract, creating numerous microcracks on the surface and within the block, reducing its strength and improving crushing efficiency.

When quenching with water, it is best not to use a water tank, as cooling with a water tank will form numerous water vapor bubbles on the quartz surface. Compared to liquid water, it is less effective at conducting heat, meaning it is less likely to produce a “snap-cooling” effect.

Ball Mill Preparation of Ultrafine Quartz Powder

A ball mill with a classifier is suitable for ultrafine quartz grinding. It provides high whiteness, glossy particle surfaces, stable quality, and controlled particle size distribution. Because quartz is hard, it wears equipment heavily and may contaminate products. Thus, wear-resistant protection is required. For electronic-grade high-purity quartz, all chambers and pipelines must be lined with ceramics or organic wear-resistant materials. Ball mills usually use alumina or flint linings.

Vibration Mill Preparation of Ultrafine Quartz Powder

A vibration mill has many advantages. First, it features low noise, compact structure, small size, light weight, low energy consumption, high output, narrow particle distribution, and no contamination. As a result, it produces electronic-grade high-purity ultrafine quartz powders with near-spherical particles. In addition, vibration mills usually use alumina as lining and alumina balls as grinding media.

Moreover, the vibration frequency directly affects grinding efficiency, equipment wear, and energy use. Therefore, selecting the right frequency based on capacity and classifier performance is crucial for controlled, efficient production. Finally, by adjusting classifier blades, rotor speed, fan pressure, airflow, and secondary airwash size, product particle size and output can be effectively controlled.

Jet Mill Preparation of Ultrafine Quartz Powder

Jet milling is one of the most advanced ultrafine grinding methods. Using a fluidized-bed jet mill, researchers obtained excellent results. Cyclone separators and bag filters yielded products with d95 = 10 μm and d97 = 6 μm. Grinding results are affected by classifier current, feed size, and classifier speed.

Use of Grinding Aids in Ultrafine Quartz Grinding

During the fine grinding of quartz, adding an appropriate amount of grinding aid not only aids grinding but also acts as a dispersant. Commonly used grinding aids include polyacrylamide, sodium chloride, silicates, triethanolamine, and sodium lauryl sulfate.

The grinding aid dosage must be appropriate. Generally, increasing the dosage enhances the grinding effect. After reaching the optimal value, increasing the dosage may actually reduce the grinding effect.

Epic Powder

Epic Powder, with over 20 years of expertise in ultrafine grinding, provides advanced ball mill and classifier systems tailored for quartz powder processing. These solutions enable precise control of particle size distribution, ensure high whiteness and purity, and reduce equipment wear through optimized design.
By combining efficient grinding technology with customized process solutions, Epic Powder helps customers produce high-performance ultrafine quartz powder that meets the demanding requirements of coatings, plastics, electronics, and other high-tech industries.